There are some monitors that force you to involuntarily pucker your lips and utter a silent “ooh.” That normally happens long after you fit the base and arm into the display and turn it on for the first time. When unboxing the 40-inch 4K Samsung Odyssey G7, I found I was much more excited by the promise of its fine black exterior and RGB ring light, not to mention its massive frame and sweeping 1,000R curve. But actually looking at it with the lights on shocked me with a sense of disappointment. Disappointment turns into acceptance, and acceptance inevitably becomes boredom.
I first laid eyes on the Odyssey G75F (model number LS40FG75DENXZA) earlier this year. It was an odd middle child between the 27-inch OLED Odyssey G6 with its blistering 360Hz refresh rate and the 27-inch OLED Odyssey G8 with its 4K, 240Hz panel (2025 was filled to the brim with this type of monitor). The Odyssey G7 offers something much different: a 40-inch curved screen with a fast 180Hz refresh rate (a rarity for ultrawide monitors). The only thing is, it doesn’t come with OLED but with a VA panel. Compared to organic light-emitting diode—a screen type that uses self-emissive colors to generate better contrast and deeper blacks—VA is closer to traditional LCD. The acronym stands for vertical alignment, which relates to the crystals inside the liquid crystal display. This type of display offers better contrast than other forms of LCD. This monitor is also solid with its 140 ppi (pixels per inch) density, meaning it can offer a relatively crisp image despite its size.
Samsung Odyssey G7
While it may lack the prestine picture of OLED, Samsung’s Odyssey G7 is still a big and engrossing 40-inch gaming monitor. Just don’t use it near any open windows.
- Easy to set up
- Good picture quality in the right conditions
- Wide swivel and tilt range for 40-inches
- Good for multitasking
- Fun RGB ring lighting
- Screen quality dips near light
- Low brightness
- Annoying cable management
- Limited HDMI ports
There are some consumers who prefer LCD technology to OLED. I’m not here to debate the merits of higher-brightness LCDs versus typically lower-brightness, more energy-dependent OLED. However, you’re better off determining whether the contrast is worth it for the price. The Odyssey G7 retails for $1,200. However, Samsung routinely discounts it to around $750 (and sometimes Amazon has it for even less). Samsung’s Odyssey monitors—and its TVs for that matter—are usually more expensive than most other brands with the same technology. For any price, there are still trade-offs aplenty.
Large and in charge
You’re mainly looking at this monitor for its size. A 40-inch screen is nothing to laugh at. On our office gaming desk we set up for testing PCs, its wingspan manages to nearly consume the table from port to starboard. Its 1,000R curve is far more dramatic than other, smaller 1800R curved monitors. A 34-inch Philips Evnia QD-OLED and the 32-inch Alienware AW3225QF won’t feel nearly as immersive as the Odyssey G7. None of these monitors reach the scale of the utterly massive 57-inch Odyssey Neo G9, but what does?
The curve nearly captures your eyes in its embrace. For gamers, it’s a truly different experience than if you’re used to flatter displays. The 4K monitor actually reaches a wider 5,120 x 2,160 resolution (sometimes called WUHD) than the typical 4K size of 3,840 x 2,160 (UHD). The Odyssey G7 sports a 21:9 aspect ratio supported by some, but not all games. It’s a similar story for streaming content as well. Some movies and shows on your favored streaming platform may support the ultrawide aspect ratio, but others won’t.
As much as choosing your content may be confusing, setting up the Odyssey G7 is a straightforward affair. You stick the flat base into the monitor stand, screw it in, then shove the monitor arm into the awaiting socket. And voila, you’re ready to play. The monitor only comes with two HDMI 2.1 and a single DisplayPort 1.4 input. There are an additional two USB-A 3.2 ports and a headphone jack. Still, I’d hardly call that port-rich for the size of this monitor.
For some odd reason, Samsung doesn’t make managing your cables too easy. There’s a single rubber strap across the back of the monitor stand that Samsung expects to contain all your miscellaneous cables. I would have preferred some more permanent loop that could hold fmore cables without straining. If you’re keen to keep a tidy desk, you’ll have to think of some inventive cable management to keep the snakes in their cage.
Despite my hangups with the Odyssey G7’s port selection and cable management, the monitor itself is a looker. That fun, circular light strip on the monitor’s rear panel can be programmed with a few preset patterns, but it’s mainly there to offer some background glow to the wall behind it. That little bit of attention to detail is consistent with Odyssey monitors, though I would have still enjoyed some speakers on the G7. The sound quality on a monitor likely won’t shiver my spine with bass, but I enjoy speakers being there in a pinch.
The Odyssey G7 is certified VESA DisplayHDR 600, though it only claims a 90% color range with a 3,000:1 contrast ratio. The one issue you’ll run into with compatibility is Samsung’s screens don’t support Dolby Vision. They instead use Samsung’s own HDR10+ gaming standard. Some noteworthy games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 will use HDR10+. Everything else will stick with the bog-standard HDR10.
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